• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 9, 2005

Any boxing metaphor for the weak debut for Mark Burnett Productions' "The Contender" might include some low blows. TV Watch will try to refrain - holding our punches until the last possible, tempting second.

Like other TV producers who went before him with a seemingly can't-miss aura, Burnett's latest reality adventure -- about the lives behind boxers -- lost. Good drama, good reviews, but so far, mediocre ratings. This show is probably not for a broadcasting network audience, but a niche pay-for-cable audience.

All this leaves some of its sponsors in a bit of a lurch. Toyota Motor Sales, Home Depot, Gatorade, and Sierra Mist all spent upwards of $16 million a piece for the 13-episode series, which included product integration and traditional commercial time on NBC.

Business television reporters will be asking real advertising questions in the coming weeks if "The Contender" can't make a dramatic turnaround, such as where will some of those sponsors get appeasement from if the show continues to fall? NBC, or Burnett? (Home Depot already has a five-show deal with Burnett and is seemingly covered.) Surely advertisers didn't spend $16 million for a 4.1 adults 18 to 49 rating; you can get that from "Crossing Jordan" for a good deal less.

In any event, branded entertainment has revealed more of its underbelly, like how things don't work, or get over sold. Imagine what the brand manager of Dove Cool Moisture Body Wash brand really thinks about "The Apprentice" after Apprentice teams came up with bad, sex-inferred commercials that will be forever associated with big cucumbers and homosexual references.

"The Contender's" 8 million viewers and 4.1 adults 18 to 49 rating weren't what viewers, business reporters, or ad agencies expected. The error in judgment was that NBC couldn't elude the central point: This is a show about boxers, which cuts a show down to size for potential audience.

NBC knew it would have a problem because women viewers - who make up the majority of primetime viewers -- are just turned off by boxing, no matter how compelling the storylines are.

Can the show recover and build? Rare is the TV program that can debut to pedestrian ratings and build to become a contender.